The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1887-11-02

3. StillWater Minn, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 1887.

cause the majority of men can earn ample
to support themselves if they do not squan-
der their means in liquor. No man commits
crime for fun--he needs money, and he
needs more money than he can honestly earn
and spend half his time in a saloon. The
result Of successful crime rarely confer
lasting benefit upon the operator, because
almost invariably the money goes for
whisky. A man will plan and carry out
successfully crime and then yield himself
to drink. and drink will be the direct cause
of a misstep which will land him behind
the bars. Liquor in this manner may be
blessing in disguise. A young man rarely
gets acquainted with professional outside
of a saloon. The majority of crimes llave
their birth in a saloon. The saloon fur
niSheS the necessary rendezvous. and when
the crime has been committed the saloon
welcomes the criminal with open arms.
shields him if need be from the hands of
justice and-greedily absorbs all of his
money and leaves him no recourse but to do
likewise again. 1t is in these indirect ways
that liquor is the cause OF so much crime.
1t absOrbs a mans time and money. These
are some of the reasons why l am now a
sincere advocate of "prohibtion." There
are men who truly desire to live honest,
nations and apparent good fellowship of
the criminal habit If liquor is kept from
these men they cannot squander their
money. and it they have money they have
no temptation to steal. 1t may be claimed
that this is placing the human being in a
very low scale, but who can gainSay the
truth of it? There are two ways to resist
temptaton-one is by the exercise of will
power. If this power is strong, victory
insueS; ii it is weak, of course failure is the
result. The other way is to remove the
temptation. l should not fail to mention
one other means of grace and that is the
strength that comes from above. In order
to obtain this wonderful assistance one
must become a christian; to become a
christian one must have faith; and it is only
to a minority that this faith is given. The
majority Of us must depend upon ourselves
and no one should be blamed for wishing to
surround himself with stronger safeguards
than his own will. No one will deny that
Ulysses was brave man, and yet when his
ship approached the Isle OF Sirens and the
strains of their deadly music fell upon his
ear, he did not trust to his will power to
resist the fatal attraction, but filled the ears
of his companions with wax and tied him.
self to the mast with a good strong rope
until his vessel was out of the dangerous
locality. True, there may be some among
us who have the power of Orpheus. You
will remember that when the ArgOnauts in
search of the Golden Fleece that they also
approached the magical Isle but instead of
following the example of Ulysses Jason
commanded Orpheus to strike the Tyre and
instead of allowing the surprising beauty
of forms and song to lure them on to dis
truction, the music OF Orpheus was so
much sweeter than that of the sirens that
they threw themselves into the sea and
were turned into rocks. There may be a
few of us that have the will power to pass
by the glittering palaces of temptation. and
turn their alluring pleasures into uninvit-
ing stones. but the majority of us cannot
but wish for the total annihilauiOn of the
saloon and its attendant attractions. For
my part. when l leave here l will not be
ashamed to follow the example Of Ulysses
and pOvide myself with lots of wax and
good strong rope. 70 sum up-a PLETHORA
pocketbook is the preventive ''par excel
lence" OF crime and the surest guarantee of
the above pocketbook is the abolition of
the saloon. GEO. ELLIOTT.
| Oct. 81. 1887.